Kid's Easel

My wife asked me to make an easel for my son’s birthday and I was ready to rock and roll!

This is a simple ‘activity easel’ for my son. I didn’t have plans, but did look around for ideas. My wife had some special requests, but it was pretty much scratch pad design stuff for the rest of it.

All pine except for 1/4” MDF backer for the activity areas and trays. I went mostly with pockethole joints (my 1st time… talk about a confidence booster… I like ‘em!) I thought about box joints and glue for the trays, but I really started liking the screw look… so I stuck with it. I also planned on a border, but I didn’t think I could churn something out quick enough (I was given a 3 weeks request… and started on the 10th day or so… oops!)... so I’ll just tell people I don’t like borders… it’s a statement on art in general – no boundaries in creativity! (or something like that heh). I also used danish oil (natural) on the pine.

The unit is semi-moveable (it’s pretty heavy with all of the MDF), but it won’t move often. The trays catch all of the dust. There’s a chalk board on one side, a dry-erase board and steel sheet (magnet activity area) on the other.

We hope to use this for his homework / schooling in the future, too. It’s pretty dog gone sturdy.